


Come Along With Me

by the5throommate



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Gen, Happy/Open ending, M/M, Munchausen by proxy, Repressed gay feelings, mentions of child abuse, references to irresponsible medication taking, slight references to suicide/self harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 09:20:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20945993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the5throommate/pseuds/the5throommate
Summary: “What the hell am I gonna do, man?”“Well...you could always come with me.”





	Come Along With Me

**Author's Note:**

> drabble i wrote as a warm-up today based on a post on twitter!

“I gotta say, this really beats your two fanny packs.”

Eddie glared down the hall at the man whose only belongings seemed to be slung over his shoulder in a ratty old backpack that made him crinkle his nose in disgust. God only knows what caused those mystery stains that were soaked into the faded brown fabric.

“We’re here to slaughter a fucking demon clown, you never know what we could need.” Eddie said sharply, kicking one of the suitcases across the threshold of his room.

“What, you got like, an arsenal in there or something? You one of those doomsday preppers? Makes sense honestly-“

“Fuck you, asshole.”

“Okay,” Richie said, abandoning his key in the doorknob and tossing his bag aside. “What’s the fucking deal, man? I know we’re all a bit ‘high-strung’ with the whole-“ (he motioned his hands around his head to mimic Pennywise’s hair) “-thing but you seem a but…extra? Or am I just severely underestimating my memory of your anxiety because I know it’s been there for a while-“

“Fuck off, man, I just wanna go to bed.” 

Richie looked at him for an unusually silent moment with crossed arms, leaning with a shoulder on the wall. “Alrighty then,” he said with a shrug. “Here lemme help you.”

Before Eddie could protest, his childhood friend had grabbed hold of his remaining suitcase and shoved past him into his room. He tossed the suitcase onto the bed, flicking the latches open with a little click. 

“Surprised you don’t have one of those fancy ones with the locks.” Richie muttered as he threw the case open.

“Hey, you can’t just go through other people’s stuff, asshole!”

“C’mon, I just wanna see what you brought! Any cool swords? A flamethrower?”

Richie’s smile began to fade a bit as he realized the whole case was just clothes, all neatly folded and organized by color. “Shit, man, how many costume changes you planning on going through?”

Eddie could swear he heard some concern disguised behind some shitty attempts at humor.

“I-I have a business trip a few days after this I thought I would just-“

“You’re still just as shit at lying as you were when we were thirteen.” Richie closed the suitcase carefully, flipping the latches back into place. “What happened, man? You’ve always been small and angry but this is pretty wild, honestly.”

Eddie rubbed the bridge of his nose. His hands were shaking. He went through his luggage mentally, trying to remember where he put his pills. 

“Why the fuck should I tell you? You’re just gonna make some dumbass ‘your mom’ joke at it, you’re just gonna make fun of me like when we were kids.” 

Richie just shook his head.

“No. I won’t. Promise. And I won’t tell any of the others, either.” He held out his fist with his pinky finger extended. “I don’t have any shards of glass so we’ll just have to pinky swear.” 

He had a small smile on his face, genuine and comforting. He had seen that smile before, decades ago now, on an overcast, frosty day sometime in the early 90s; a day where he had stormed out of his house with his mother screaming behind him, begging for him to come back, begging for forgiveness.

_“Dude, what the hell are you doing here? I thought you had the flu!”_

_ “No, I don’t! I don’t have the fucking flu, I’m not fucking sick!” _

_ Richie had let Eddie in right away, leading him upstairs by the wrist, sneaking past his father who was snoring on the sofa in front of an outdated TV. _

_ “I went into the kitchen to get some more water cause I thought my mom was taking a nap. She was in there, though. Sh-she was putting something in my food, Richie! She’s making me fucking sick, I know it!”_

_ “What, like she’s trying to kill you or something?”_

_ “No. No, I don’t think so. She just wants me sick. She told me if I went on that class trip last week in this weather I would get the flu, she told me so. She’s mad at me for going so now she’s making me sick!” Eddie felt tears beginning to drip down his face. He buried his face in his sweater (hand-knit, by his mother) as he began to sob. _

_ “You know…” Richie began. Eddie readied himself for some snarky remark, some crude joke. “We have some non-poisoned pizza left over in the fridge. If you want some.” _

_ He felt an arm tentatively wrap around his shoulders, bringing him in close. “My mom has some herbal tea she says is relaxing, she won’t mind if you take a bag. I also have my own small bag of relaxing herbs, if you’re interested.” _

_ “You dumbass fucking stoner piece of shit,” Eddie said as he emerged from his sweater, sniffling, a shaky grin twitching on his lips. _

_ “A dumbass fucking stoner piece of shit that just made you smile! Admit it.” _

_ (“Fine, whatever,” Eddie said, wiping his eyes, letting his smile grow bigger.) _

_ “Seriously though. We got pizza downstairs, some canned soup, some chips. You can have whatever you feel like, you can even stay here, I’ll get it for you.” _

_ “Thanks man, but I’m good. Still feel sick.”_

_ “So you’re bad?” _

_ “Hah. Yeah, I guess I’m bad.” _

_ They sat in silence for a few moments more until Eddie’s sobs became small hiccups and cheeks had become dry of tears. _

_ “I hate this place,” he spoke up. “I can’t wait to get the fuck outta here, to fucking leave. I’m scared my mom might chain me in the basement if I ever get any letters from a college, though.” _

_ “No she wouldn’t. I’ve met her, she could never make it down those stairs. I mean gravity could help, but-“_

_ “You are such an ass!” Eddie said, cutting him off with a not-so-hard punch to the shoulder. _

_ “Being an ass is all I have to offer. Still looking for a school that offers scholarships for that.” _

_ “Gonna be flippin’ burgers the rest of your life, man.” _

_ “And what’s so wrong with that? It’s a noble profession. Could work my way up to owning the restaurant someday, maybe open my own.” _

_ “No offense dude but you’re a shit cook. There’s a reason you have so many leftovers in the fridge.” _

_ “You could help. Like, if you wanted to. You’re good with numbers and math and stuff you could help run the restaurant.”_

_ “What, like we would be business partners?”_

_ “Yeah, man. Partners. We can leave together, you can go to a fancy school and I can find a job and we can probably find a decent apartment so you don’t have to live in those shitty dorms where you share the bathroom with the entire floor. _

_ (“Like sharing a bathroom with you would be any better?” _

_ “Fuck off, dude, I’m trying to cheer you up.”) _

_ “I can hone my chef skills, and by the time you graduate I’ll be a master cook, I’ll be able to do the flippy thing with the spatulas like those Japanese guys. Even if the food’s shit, they’ll come for the show!” _

_ “And then someone will get food poisoning and get hospitalized and sue, and next thing you know you’re filing for bankruptcy and living in a cardboard box in the alley behind the building you used to own.” _

_ Richie laughed, loud and obnoxious, stray hair falling into his eyes that he had to comb back with his fingers. Eddie’s stomach felt twisted, and not from the fake flu. _

_ “Okay but really-I think we could do great if we went off together. An unstoppable team. Brain and brawn. We can leave this town in the fucking dust.” _

_ Eddie found himself nodding along with Richie’s words. “Yeah. Yeah that would be fun. For like a month maybe, then I would probably want to kill you but, you know, before that…could be fun. Better than my fucking mom.”_

_ “Exactly. Anything’s better than fucking your mom.” _

_ Richie Toizer smiled, genuine and comforting._

_ Eddie Kaspbrak laughed. _

Eddie took his own pinky finger (hand still shaking) and looped it around Richie’s.

“Myra kicked me out.”

“Myra?”

“My wife.”

“Oh! Fuck, yeah, forgot you got married.”

“Yeah, I wish I could forget I got married.”

Eddie noticed Richie getting closer, entwining more of their fingers together. Eddie pretended not to notice. Eddie really didn’t mind. He just gazed down at his still-shaking hand, the one Richie was now holding.

(Richie was holding his hand.)

(Richie was here.)

The floodgates opened and he told Richie everything, everything from the moment he left Derry for school in New York, the moment he met Myra in their intro to philosophy course, to the first date to his first job to the proposal, the moment he realized she was just like his mother and drank an entire weekend away to deciding he would rather be dead than be here but once a coward always a coward, Mike’s call to his trip to the airport after taking what was probably a dangerous amount of his anxiety meds so he could sleep on the plane to walking in to that restaurant and seeing his friends for the first time in years and remembering a time when he was happy-

He was a sobbing, shuddering mess by the end of it, and Richie was there with him all the way through. No sarcastic comments or dumb jokes, just a safe, silent presence that held him there, kept him anchored.

Eddie was hiccupping, eyes still wet and puffy, trying to take deep breaths.

“What the hell am I gonna do, man?”

“Well,” Richie said softly, now holding Eddie in a full embrace, resting his chin on the top of his head, “You could always come with me.”

Even Richie himself seemed surprised at the offer; Eddie felt him go tense, holding his breath.

“What?”

“I said you could come with me. Come stay with me, I mean. In my place in L.A.. It’s pretty nice, I think you would like it. Lot’s of room. Actually kinda empty…”

“Wait, for real?” Eddie pulled away to look Richie in the eye, to scan for any sign of jokes or deception. But Richie looked genuine. Hopeful.

“Yeah, man, for real! I…I think it would be fun. We have a lot of catching up to do, you know?”

Eddie nodded, blinking away new tears.

“We could go tomorrow. First thing in the morning. We paid our fucking dues here, it’s not our problem any more. And fuck what Bev said, I rather take my chances with anything out there than what I know is here. And don’t tell Bev I said that, she’ll kick my ass.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

“Okay to coming with me or okay to not telling Bev?”

“Both, asshole! I would love to go with you, I-I can’t wait to go with you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, of course!”

“That’s-that’s amazing, man, I’m so excited, I’m-“

Richie cut himself off. The pair realized how they were holding one another; Richie cupping Eddie’s face in his hands, Eddie a gentle hold on his wrists.

“I…sorry, you said you wanted to go to bed, I’ll-I’ll let you go,” Richie said, putting his hands in his pockets trying to play it cool, the flush on his cheeks giving him away. 

“Oh. Yeah, okay,” Eddie stammered. The room felt small, and hot. In a bit of a good way.

“G’night, man,” said Richie, holding out a hand. Eddie thought, fuck it, and hugged him again.

“Night,” he replied, burying his face in his dumb patterned shirt.

Richie smiled his gentle, comforting smile as he closed Eddie’s door, waving goodbye.

“Love you, man,” he said, barely loud enough to hear.

“Love you, too,” Eddie said back, seconds before the door clicked shut.

Eddie laughed, a quiet, relieved, joyous laugh.

For the rest of the night, his hands were still.


End file.
